Footy fans are livid that Ezra Mam has won The Frownlow Medal in 2024 after sending a young girl to hospital.
The young NRL star was awarded the most prestigious prize in Australian sport despite causing a horrific car crash and receiving a far more lenient punishment than an AFL player.
The Frownlow Medal is awarded to the player whose off-field demeanour epitomises the values of the modern-day footballer and draws attention to the status of footballers as role models to young Australians. It covers Australia’s four major football codes: the National Rugby League (NRL), Australian Football League (AFL), the A-League (Football) and Rugby Union’s Super Rugby competition. NRL player Shaun Kenny-Dowall won the inaugural medal in 2015.
Mam almost led the Brisbane Broncos to a premiership in 2023 but will finish 2024 as one of the most despised athletes in Australia for his role in the crash. The young halfback drove his powerful ute into an oncoming car in Brisbane in October and was later found to be under the influence of a cocktail of illicit drugs including cocaine. He was also driving without a licence.
A young girl and a woman suffered minor injuries and the magistrate in Mam’s court case labelled his actions as ‘stupid’.
Mam entered a rehabilitation facility shortly after for four weeks and is undertaking counselling for a year. Initially, he was banned for nine NRL games, had his licence disqualified for six months and was fined $850. In contrast, AFL player Joel Smith was kicked out of the sport for four years for using and trafficking illicit drugs.
Smith tested positive to cocaine use in 2023 and possession in 2022, and was found guilty of trafficking cocaine in 2021 and 2022. The trafficking charge refers to offering some of the drugs to friends and teammates – hardly worthy of an episode of ‘Narcos’, but enough to see him destroy his AFL career. He’ll now have to sign up to reality TV.
Fans are asking why Smith didn’t win the Frownlow after such a heavy punishment.
Smith didn’t put anyone in hospital.
Mam was later handed an extra $90,000 fine, but many fans wonder why he wasn’t banned for an entire season.
“Today is a very important step in owning my actions and starting to make things right,” Mam told the media.
“To the people involved in the accident, I am truly sorry. This incident isn’t a reflection of who I want to be or what is expected of me as a role model.”
There it is, the inevitable allusion to footballers as role models.
The Broncos tried to save Mam’s image by sending him to work as a labourer at a building site for a few days, but forgot that many tradies and construction workers earn more than teachers, nurses and police. The stunt didn’t work.
Accepting his medal at the awards night for The Frownlow Medal and The Frownlow Medal Hall of Fame, Mam was stuck for words.
He couldn’t thank ‘the boys’ because the crash was entirely his fault. He couldn’t thank the coach because Kevvie had nothing to do with it. He couldn’t say he was taking it one game at a time because he won’t play the next nine. He couldn’t even pay tribute to the opposition because the victims were simply victims.
This was all Mam’s doing.
Instead, he mumbled a thankyou before sniffling and wiping some powder from his nose.
Nevertheless, the young Queenslander received warm applause from fellow Frownlow contenders, including NRL colleagues such as Spencer Leniu, who racially abused Mam. Leniu was banned for eight games, Mam nine. Three other NRL colleagues, Josh Addo-Carr, Braydon Trindall and Sandon Smith also chose driving offences to vie for the medal, but didn’t do enough to win.
AFL players actually dominated the nominations, with a total of 15 across the men’s and women’s competitions. Haneen Zreika made her annual bid when she refused to wear a rainbow jersey due to her Islamic faith, and two Swans players, Alexia Hamilton and Paige Sheppard were caught with ‘haram’ substances.
Zreika’s male counterparts at the Giants made headlines during Mad Monday, while four A Leagues men’s players carried the torch for football. No rugby union players were nominated in 2024.
Mam’s victory keeps the medal in the hands of the NRL yet again. NRL players have now won nine of the 10 medals. Karmichael Hunt (2018) played elite NRL, AFL and Rugby Union, meaning AFL player Elijah Taylor (2020) is the only medallist not to have played NRL.
Image: NRL Photos
The Frownlow Medal 